A Word From Dr. Schrimpf-Head of PCS Middle School

Being a teenager is not easy. With that said, there are
also a lot of great things about being a teen. You can eat
whatever you want, you don't need to worry about wrinkles, you most
likely have a full head of hair (I am particularly jealous of this
one), and most importantly, your future is full of
opportunity. In the middle school, we're not going to worry
much about wrinkles or hair, but we are going to be spending a lot
of time this year thinking about opportunity. In fact,
opportunity is our theme for the year.

The world is full of opportunity. But the problem is that
we need to be ready to take advantage of an opportunity when it
comes along. The more prepared we are, the more likely we are
going to be able to take advantage of an opportunity when it
presents itself. One of our goals in the middle school is to
help students begin to think about opportunities that they want to
take advantage of in the future. All of our students
completed a writing exercise on this topic at the beginning of the
school year and I have been meeting individually with them to talk
about what they wrote. I encourage each of you to do the same
at home as well. It is very important to get teenagers
thinking about what they want from the future so that they can also
begin thinking about what they need to do to get there.

Along those same lines, it is also very important to teach teens
that all of the decisions that they make now will impact their
abilities to take advantage of opportunity in the future.
Good decisions will make it easier to take advantage of
opportunities when they come, bad decisions will make it more
difficult. This is another great thing that you can do at
home with your teenager as well. It is often difficult for
teens to think very far into the future, they tend to live more in
the moment. But if we regularly ask them to reflect on their
choices and how those choices will affect them in the future, they
will begin to master this important skill.

On behalf of the entire middle school team, thank you so much
for the chance to partner with you to break down the door of
opportunity and prepare our next generation for all the great
things that their futures hold.

To read a copy of the latest Middle School update letter please
click
HERE.